NVTA technical advisers endorse staff’s Six‑Year Program recommendations; decline Arlington reallocations request

The Northern Virginia Transportation Authority’s Technical Advisory Committee on June 17 endorsed staff recommendations for the agency’s Six‑Year Program update, backing funding for 21 of 27 candidate projects and signaling continued emphasis on Bus Rapid Transit and multimodal projects.

Shri, presenting on behalf of NVTA staff, said the recommendation package includes 21 projects recommended either fully or partially and spans a wide range of project sizes. “Here we have 27 candidate projects. 21 of them are getting staff recommendations. 18 of them for their full amount. Three of them partial amount,” Shri said, adding that the authority’s PGO for the FY30–31 update is about $775.793 million against roughly $1.25 billion in requests.

Why it matters: staff estimated that, including previous program approvals, the region will approach about $4.5 billion in NVTA investment through 2031. The recommended portfolio targets corridors such as I‑95/Route 1, Route 66 and Route 50 and continues a regional focus on BRT — NVTA has previously invested roughly $880 million in five BRT projects and staff recommended additional funds that would push total BRT investment past $1 billion. The cycle also included a record number and dollar amount of bike‑and‑pedestrian applications; staff recommended funding nine bike/ped projects totaling about $165 million.

Partial funding choices: Staff explained three projects received partial awards to protect other funding commitments, to reflect transaction‑rating priorities, or to respond to public comments. Examples cited by staff included Richmond Highway BRT (request $463 million; staff recommended $116.3 million), Arlington’s South George Mason Drive multimodal improvements (request $36 million; staff recommended $28.7 million), and Loudoun’s Colonial Highway pedestrian safety (request $8.5 million; staff recommended $1.6 million).

Arlington request and TAC response: TAC member Monica asked whether the committee had been informed of an Arlington County request to reallocate $8.5 million from project ARL026 to ARL027. Shri said the request—sent by email to PCAC earlier the same day—proposed moving $8.5 million from ARL026 (CRC rank 19) to ARL027 (CRC rank 23) so the two adjacent projects could advance design on similar schedules. Shri said the Planning Coordination and Advisory Committee (PCAC) had discussed the email and did not support the reallocation (eight PCAC members supported staff’s recommendation; two abstained).

Several TAC members said internal county budgeting and prioritization were Arlington’s responsibility and that TAC should not unilaterally alter rankings or funding priorities adopted in the program process. One member criticized the request’s intent, saying, “they’re playing a kind of a shell game,” characterizing the move as an internal county funding choice rather than an NVTA decision. The TAC did not adopt the Arlington swap and instead moved to endorse the staff recommendations as presented.

Formal action: a TAC member moved to endorse the staff recommendations; Frank and Michelle seconded the motion. The chair called for opposition and, hearing none, announced the motion passed by voice vote. Committee members clarified the endorsement covered the full slate of staff recommendations, not only the Arlington question.

Next steps: TAC and PCAC recommendations will go to the Planning and Programming Committee; that committee will formulate a single recommendation for the NVTA Authority, which is scheduled to consider the Six‑Year Program update at its July 9 meeting. If adopted, the program will be followed quickly by the next call for projects for FY32–33 revenue assumptions.

Funding and process details: staff repeatedly referenced CRC (Condition Reduction related to Cost) and transaction‑rating rules as legally required priorities that guided scoring; staff said where they deviated from strict rank order they would provide explanations tied to long‑term benefit, external funding availability and public comment.

The committee adjourned after brief remarks recognizing Virginia’s workplace commuting honors and noting further meetings to follow as the Six‑Year Program proceeds through the NVTA decision process.